


The Beginning at the End

by EjBlaKit



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, On a grumpy quest for salvation, Reylo Undertones, Where Hux has a serious addiction problem, Where Kylo doesn't pout too much, Where they seriously need a new ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 16:05:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11877999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EjBlaKit/pseuds/EjBlaKit
Summary: Hux and Kylo have escaped the destruction of Starkiller and are fleeing with their prize to earn redemption.





	The Beginning at the End

**Author's Note:**

> Where I drabble to motivate myself to write again.

He took another drag, smoke curling from his parted lips.

'Those will kill you, you know.'

'Amongst other things,' he agree amiably enough, considering the circumstances.

Kylo Ren scoffed, turning his face away, arms locked tightly across his chest. The position burned, nerves screaming and skin stretching, but it was good to feel alive, good to know what weakness was. It had been a close thing, all those weeks ago, frost bit and half mad. But the hellion was clawing at the walls beneath their feet, vocal chords damaged from incessant caterwauling. 

It was lonely in the vacuum, with a sentinel as a companion. Better than a droid, though at least droids didn't smoke incessantly, clogging up the air filters and staining their clothes with the unescapable stink. Worse. But better. Definitely better. 

The lights flickered again, running through the cycle, one after the other, a wave of black and then ethereal blue. Powering down systematically, though not by choice.

'Do you have to?' He groused again, trying not to wrinkle his nose, but desperate for the contact of communication and proximity. His shoulder felt heavy with the weight of his agony. 'There's barely enough air as it is.'

'There's enough for as long as it takes.' The red head replied dismissively. 'You wanted to bring her.'

'You said we could not return empty handed.' 

Hux shrugged his shoulders as though that comment was neither here nor there.

He looked utterly different now. Kylo was watching him from the corner of his eyes, drinking in the simple human shape of him. Isolation was not a pretty thing to force upon people, nor was a near death experience, multiplied by two in the space of one terrifying week. 

The General was no longer a machine clad in human skin. His rigid posture was slouched, foot resting against the seat, knee bent, uniform wrinkled, great coat stained. His eyes were rimmed with exhaustion, his hair in natural disarray, lips cracked and knuckles bruised. He'd had gloves, but Kylo couldn't recall the last time he'd seen Hux wear them. Not that it mattered. But the bare skin was tempting, begging to be touched, to be felt. Skin on skin. Nearness. Contact.

'I'm not fucking you, Ren.' Hux said. 'We haven't been stuck in here nearly that long.'

Kylo wanted to scoff, to pout and turn away at the insinuation, but instead he frowned. He honestly hadn't thought of that possibility. That ... eventuality. Loneliness was a cruel mistress, but Hux was worse.

'Rations?' He asked instead, pushing himself away from the bulkhead, from the place that had become his nest, cuddled so closely beside Hux's. Warmth was becoming harder to glean, so the small living space was now a blessing. He chose not to think of the vile things spoken and done in the beginning. It served no purpose now, to either of them.

'It's been two days. I suppose so.' Hux flicked his ash over Kylo's blankets. The Knight ignored it, choosing instead to slide away the wall panel to pull out the half pack and tuck it into his pocket. He could feel colourless eyes burning holes into his back as he clambered awkwardly down the ladder to below decks. Or above decks. Space was relative, or something like that. He could turn off the gravity and it wouldn't matter. The thought of Hux's indignation brought a smile to his face, which was wiped away instantly as he looked at the sealed door. 

There was no indecision about what to do next, only intelligent pause. 

The door opened easily to his password, delayed only minimally as it drew from their strained power reserves.

'Eat.' He said simply to the lump in the far corner.

Her skin looked almost blue, her limbs trembling from cold. His frown deepened. He stepped in and groaned.

'Come.' He said instead, stalking towards her, not allowing her the time to fear as he seized her lax bicep and hauled her out and up.

'What?' Hux demanded as she was thrown into the space between their nests, but then he was shifting blankets and his coat, wrapping her up, cocooning her so that she would live beyond an icy grave. They did not have the resources to flush her into space. The door wouldn't have enough to seal afterwards. 

When she awoke later, Hux and Kylo had come to a silent agreement, wedging her between them, though she was a poor heating choice. She didn't struggle as her eyes opened, fingers tightening around the food they'd left sitting in her grasp. She ate quietly, picking at the tasteless morsel wrapped in foil. And then she slept again, curling herself up impossibly small, head tilting until unconsciousness landed it against Kylo's arm. He looked down at her. Hux lifted a questioning eyebrow.

'This was your idea.' Kylo said. 

Their days were barely that as the ship cycled through its systems, slower and slower. Less lights, less functions. Heating minimal, oxygen barely. Hux could no longer smoke and became almost insufferable in his silences. Kylo wanted to fight with him again, wanted to raise more bruises and welts, but any prolonged movement made him light headed, gave his vision black spots. The girl, for the most part, was quiet. Oddly content to curl up into the heat of them, accepting any food they offered from their own pathetic stores. She seemed to have realised exactly what sort of predicament they were in.

'Not long now.' Hux said on the third month or fourth year. 

She looked up from where she was resting in Kylo's lap, her chosen nest for the past certain amount of time. Never Hux, she didn't seem to trust him, though she was infatuated by his coat, was hard to part from it. 

'How can you tell?' She asked, whispered and scratchy. She spoke the least, a handful of words since her release. 

It was a valid question. The readouts were long since dead, computers in hibernation as their junker floated in the death of the universe. The absolute blackness of absolution. 

'The glow.' Hux said from where he'd situated himself by the view port.

A few minutes or hours or weeks later and the glow invaded their ship, burning retinas and peeling lips back from teeth in pained grimaces. 

'We've arrived.' Hux said, somewhat unnecessarily. He was fingering his seemingly endless pack of cigarettes. His skin hung from his withered frame. 

She nodded sullenly, allowing Kylo to keep his arms wrapped around her, their warmth contained by his cloak. 

When the ship juddered, docking clamps applied, and the walls about them shrieked with repressurisation, none of them moved. None of them could move.

Air, strong and vibrant flooded the compartment and they realised that they stank, horrendously. But that was secondary to the dizziness as their bodies struggled to process the sudden influx of oxygen, as their lungs expanded eagerly and their ribs ached with the effort. 

'Hands where we can see them.' A deep voice boomed from everywhere all at once, but Kylo wasn't worried as his head drooped, chin bumping against her head.

He heard her gasp, felt it transfer through her back and into his torso.

'You brought me home.' She had wonder in her voice, hope and disbelief and happiness all intermingled sweetly. 'You brought me home.'

And they had.

They'd made it.

'Rey?'


End file.
